Loading home…
This is what I like to call a “dynamic edit” of *Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge* by My Chemical Romance! While this album faced quite a decent amount of dynamic range compression (not to be confused with data compression) in its mastering, it certainly isn’t as bad as *The Black Parade* or *Danger Days* in that respect, though the album faces a more fundamental issue, which I’ll explain in a bit. For those not in the know, the Loudness War is a phenomenon beginning in the mid-90s onward, in which music was mastered louder and louder, with the underlying reasoning being that louder music sells better. As with any medium, however, there is a peak loudness a signal can reach, so dynamic range compression (which makes the louder parts of the signal quieter while keeping the quiet parts quiet) and sometimes even clipping (attempting to push a signal beyond its peak) were used to make music as loud as possible. Music that has faced a high degree of dynamic range compression and/or clipping can be fatiguing to the ear, and clipping in particular can produce this audible distortion that typically manifests in this hiss-like artifact emanating over loud sections. *Californication* by Red Hot Chili Peppers is probably the most infamous album when it comes to clipping. “The Jetset Life Is Gonna Kill You” suffers from clipping at points, particularly around 2:33. I attempted to fix up the dynamic range compression on this record with a program called “Perfect Declipper”, can not only help alleviate clipping, but also much of the dynamic range compression that occurs during mastering! As such, many of the artifacts of dynamic range compression and clipping, including hiss, are much less noticeable, and the result is much more dynamic. In this case, I was able to turn the dynamic range of the album from 5 into 11! In my edits, it’s important to note that the dynamics are not being restored with the "Perfect Declipper" program that I use, but rather, they are being approximated. While one may not be able to "declip" an album as one would be unable to "unbake a cake", I find the results here to be a convincible attempt at doing so. Only in the most extreme examples have I heard the program produce odd artifacts that would appear unintended in the album’s mix. As for the more “fundamental issue” I alluded to earlier, the album’s mix is hands-down the worst aspect of the record. I found myself continually bored song after song, and I feel the mixing of the rhythm guitar is the main culprit. The loud crowded freak-outs within many of these songs are occupied by this thick, airy, toothless rhythm guitar that just turns everything to gray. The opening 20 seconds of “Thank You for the Venom” is easily the most exciting part of the song, with the rest of it populated with instrumentation that sounds like its sung behind a certain, somewhat muted and lacking in body. In their next record, the rhythm guitar has much more bite and is much clearer, making the music far more exciting as a result. I produce many more dynamic edits on this channel as well as further descriptions in posts over on Reddit! https://www.reddit.com/user/TopConcer...